AVGN: Ikari Warriors

Ikari Warriors is one of those NES games I never got to see the ending of as a kid. In fact, until seeing this AVGN video I never even knew there was a 4th stage - as kids we just assumed that the 3rd stage was the end. In fact, once or twice I think my friend and I actually made it all the way to the end of the 3rd stage and killed the undead boss, only to get stuck because we didnt know that you had to bomb the floor repeatedly to advance - a preposterous design decision if there ever was one.

Ikari Warriors is a game that I played a ton of in its day, but going back to it now, I have to say that its truly awful. Compared to the NES version of Contra, which is actually better than its arcade counterpart, Ikari Warriors didnt make the transition to home consoles well - the controls are borked and the graphics are putrid. Ikari Warriors 2 and 3 are much better, but still dont quite hold up as well as Contra, which in my opinion is the best action game made for the NES and remains highly playable to this day.